Transatlantic bomb plot 'made in Pakistan'
Martyrdom videos made by the plotters were shown in court
Also In The News
|
By James Christie
Teenage tennis sensation Melanie Oudin, of Georgia, USA, will have the US Open quarter-finals on her mind after knocking out the seeded Nadia Petrova. |  |
Tuesday, 08, Sep 2009 07:05
By Matthew Champion.
Two of the three men yesterday convicted of plotting what would have been Britain's worst-ever terrorist atrocity had strong links to al-Qaida cells in Pakistan, it has emerged.
Abdullah Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar made several trips to Pakistan in the years preceding their 2006 arrest on suspicion of planning to smuggle liquid explosives on to seven passenger jets and blow them up over the Atlantic.
Evidence presented in court and indications from senior police figures show that al-Qaida operatives in Pakistan provided key knowledge for the plot.
"A large part of this plan was invented in Pakistan," a source told the Guardian.
Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner John McDowall discusses the case:
Yesterday Scotland Yard released a host of materials related to the conviction of Ali, Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, who were all convicted of conspiring to activate bombs disguised as drinks, including coded emails sent between the would-be bombers and Pakistan.
Many of the back-and-forth emails were sent with the subject line "How are you babes" in order to avoid detection by the security services.
It is understood that the man referred to as "Paps" or "Papa" in the exchanges is British-Pakistani terror suspect Rashid Rauf. The suspected terrorist was arrested in Pakistan the day before Scotland Yard swooped on the men convicted yesterday at Woolwich crown court.
He later escaped from Pakistan custody but it believed to have died in a US air-strike in 2008.
According to reports, it was on American insistence - the US having been informed of the potential plot by British intelligence services - that Rauf was arrested, forcing Scotland Yard's hand.
The claims have been denied on both sides of the Atlantic.
It is estimated that the seven bombs, which were to be smuggled inside cabins within soft drink bottles and activated by detonators inside disposable cameras, would have killed more people than the September 11th 2001 attacks.
Ali, 28, from Walthamstow; Sarwar, 29, from High Wycombe; and Hussain, 28, from Leyton, will be sentenced on Monday.